Posts Tagged ‘fitness’

We are on a not-so-merry-go-roundwhich, even after health care reform, continues to promote a system of illness incentives that are improperly reimbursed, improperly addressed, and inappropriately segmented. We continue to consider body parts as if they are not connected to or a component of the whole.

Tort reform still has virtually no teeth. This causes physicians to practice sometimes over-the-top medicine in self-defense. When will it be time to begin to throw the switch and teach patients what we already know so well; that wellness, wholeness, and health can change the quality of our lives completely? Our medical schools need to embrace wellness and prevention as a path to health. Not unlike indigenous man, it is time that we begin to realize that our brains do have something to do with our bodies. We live in a commodity driven society which does not always promote the best, most healthful food, even miminal exercise, stress management, or self-nurturing. Instead, because of those quarterly reports to the stockholders, these companies promote what is the most lucrative and often the easiest to sell.

We know that drinking a soft drink with 10 teaspoons of sugar is not healthful. We clearly understand that quadruple cheese anything might eventually catch up with us, or that Uncle Buck’s 72 oz. steak can’t really be good for our arteries. Fried and buttered everything, a total lack of exercise, and more stress than anyone can ever dream of will not extend our lives

One night a few weeks ago I couldn’t sleep, and at 3:00 AM, I looked up and saw an apparition… Oprah. There she was, talking about food. The person she was interviewing said, “Oprah, in the 1960’s, our food cost us 18% of our annual income. ” Maybe that’s why there weren’t more restaurants at that time. Families were stretched just eating at home. He went on to say that, “In the 60’s, healthcare costs us 9% of our income.” Finally he said, “Now healthcare costs us 18% of our income, and food costs us 9%.”

So, that’s the trade off. We can buy good, farmer’s market-type healthy, organic food and have low healthcare costs, or we can buy manufactured, additive filled food, and pay more for our healthcare. How much further down this cul de sac must we go as a country before we begin to realize the path to health and wellness or longevity?

Healthcare Reform? The premise and the incentives are wrong. We treat sickness (which can be a good thing), however, we do it to the almost total exclusion of encouraging and incenting wellness. While in the Netherlands a few years ago, I asked a very comfortably-situated business person why she and her entire family all rode bikes. She smiled and explained that the millions of bikes in the Netherlands are a way of life because they keep people healthy. Of course, we don’t have to ride bikes, but why not? “It is much less costly. It gets us where we want to go, and it is so much better for our bodies,” she said.

Photo credit: Amsterdamize

After going to doctor after doctor in my early thirties and then again in my early forties for a recurring and seriously painful back problem, someone suggested a Chicago-trained chiropractor. After a very quick, one time manipulation, he said, “Follow me, please.” When we descended the stars of his office, in front of me was literally an entire homemade work out facility. This particular center seemed to emphasize strength training. The Doc walked me over to a row of three machines and said, “If you use these three machine or their equivalent, just the way I show you, you will never have to come back here again.” Then he said, “Oh, and if you drop fifteen pounds, you may be able to get off those blood pressure pills, stop taking that stomach medicine, and feel better about yourself in the process.”

The Dr. Dean OrnishCoronary Artery Disease Reversal Program is completely about health and prevention. It is about wellness; treating yourself with the love and respect that you deserve, being kind to yourself, yet being disciplined enough to get you where you need to be in order to enjoy a healthy, pain free life.

We spend only 4% of our health care dollars on prevention. That may sound like a lot to some of you, but do the math. Take 4% and multiple it times $2.2 trillion …or possibly soon $3 or $4.0 trillion. Every physician should endorse a workout facility and work to send you there, and every physician should receive bonuses for having you use it. A primary care physician in Britain can make about $320K a year, which includes incentives directed toward encouraging healthy living for their patients. Our primary care docs make, what, $130,000, $150,000, $180,00 in comparison? Would you really care if your physician could make almost twice as much if you were living a wonderful, healthful, reduced stress life?

There is absolutely NO DOUBT in my mind that the reason I’m typing this here today and not deceased at age 58, like my father, is because of the work of people like Drs. Ornish, Benson, Jonas, and Weil. It is not because of my old donut shop, the nachos and cheese, the automobiles, my Lazy Boy, or the grueling work habits that we Americans think of as normal.

And what about death? I have to tell you that death happens to all of us. (Sorry.) When it happens may depend a great deal upon our recognition of that fact, but it is not avoidable. So, why is it that we, as a society, reject death as evil, and ignore its possible existence? How could we cut billions and billions of wasted healthcare dollars? Hospice is the answer. Don’t commission oncologists for drug use when there is absolutely no hope that the patient will live. Don’t pay radiologists for radiation treatments that will not work in preventing death. Don’t reward hospitals financially for readmission after readmission for people who should have been told to mark their DNR’s months earlier. Face death as part of life.

Finally, look at the food and restaurant industry. For every restaurant or food company that pulls a killer food and replaces it with the reasonable alternatives, reward them through the $3 or $4 trillion health budget. You can buy veggie hot dogs on the streets of Toronto. (Try Morning Star Farms brand veggie hot dogs. They rock.)

In closing; diet, exercise, stress management, balanced lives, less capitalistic rewarding of killer diets, higher reimbursements in healthcare for the “right stuff,” and acknowledgement that this will eventually end, can make it all work so much better, so much cheaper, so much easier. Did you have your pneumonia shot yet? Well, actually, you may not need one if you start taking care of yourself. I’m going downstairs to workout now.

F. Nicholas “Nick” Jacobs, FACHE, is the international director for SunStone Consulting, LLC. In that capacity he provides transformative, strategic solutions to companies, organizations and individuals. He has more than 20 years experience in hospital management, with an acknowledged reputation for innovation and consumer-centered leadership.
Throughout his career, Mr. Jacobs has developed a reputation for innovative leadership that focuses on effective delivery of service that puts the patient’s needs and concerns first. He speaks extensively on this topic and has spoken for the American College of Healthcare Executives, American Hospital Association, and the World Health Organization numerous times.